The right to carry arms is a freedom of U.S. citizens, but UFC fighters won’t be able to carry their brand names on their shorts or banners any longer.

UFC president Dana White confirmed on Thursday that any gun-related brand will no longer be allowed to sponsor UFC fighters in the Octagon.

“Yeah, guns and ammo are not sponsored in the UFC,” White said following the pre-fight press conference in Chicago.

Reports circulated that the UFC’s relationship with Fox may have something to do with the ban of gun-related sponsors. The UFC president admitted some relevancy, but advised the ban has more to do with the organization’s efforts to expand internationally, and is not an issue to fuss over. White explained that fighters feel the effects of such a ban, but that’s just the way things are.

“It wasn’t necessarily a Fox decision. I don’t know what the big deal is,” White said. “I know that some of the fighters get affected by it, but it is what it is.

“The reality of it is we’re going into other countries now. If you’re sitting in China, you want to see a United States Marine commercial? Holy (expletive), no! It’s all part of the growing pains of building a business like this and building the sport.”

The UFC has history in banning sponsors for a number of reasons. Some of the more notable bans from recent history have been names such as Affliction – which is no longer banned – and CondomDepot.com.

The Good4U Drinks company, another banned brand, was told by UFC officials in 2010 that their product was seen as a direct competitor of Zuffa-owned Xenergy, and wouldn’t be allowed sponsorship of fighters for UFC fight cards. UFC heavyweight Shane Carwin, who was sponsored by Good4U at the time, made his displeasure known by tweeting, “another worthy, great, honorable company supporting fighters banned by the UFC.”

Carwin’s post was later removed from his Twitter timeline.

Like most other sports entities, the sponsors the UFC often refuses conflict with other sponsors or interests already ingrained with the promotion, such as the case between Good4U Drinks and Xenergy. Other brands that promote subjects that the promotion doesn’t feel fit its image, like this case with firearm related sponsors, are often refused.

Diaz always finds a way to self destruct. Thats his specialty. Besides does anyone really care about a rematch. IMHO the UFC is putting out way to many mediocre fight cards. Quantity over quality seems to be their business plan. I haven't been excited for one of their fight cards in a long time.

I like both fighters - Franklin and Le. Hate to see either one lose. Sad to see a fighter of Franklin's experience/caliber to neglect a BASIC - HANDS UP!

I only had time to make a gif of the KO from the realtime footage...sometime later tomorrow night, will make gif's of the KO from the slowmo footage and edit into this entry.

My friend Joe Silvia (aka Ausgepicht. is a MMA coach) is always ranting how coaches and fighters don't set up their low round kicks with the hands. Ace paid the price.

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"A good stickgrappler has good stick skills, good grappling, and good stickgrappling and can keep track of all three simultaneously. This is a good trick and can be quite effective." - Marc "Crafty Dog" Denny

Some gif's I made of the UFC 154 - GSP X Carlos Condit fight from this past Saturday:

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

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"A good stickgrappler has good stick skills, good grappling, and good stickgrappling and can keep track of all three simultaneously. This is a good trick and can be quite effective." - Marc "Crafty Dog" Denny

Rd 3 after Condit's combo which knocked down GSP, GSP replies later with this takedown after he sets it up with a few punches

« Last Edit: November 20, 2012, 12:47:28 AM by Stickgrappler »

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"A good stickgrappler has good stick skills, good grappling, and good stickgrappling and can keep track of all three simultaneously. This is a good trick and can be quite effective." - Marc "Crafty Dog" Denny

"A good stickgrappler has good stick skills, good grappling, and good stickgrappling and can keep track of all three simultaneously. This is a good trick and can be quite effective." - Marc "Crafty Dog" Denny

BEYOND the pinging slot machines and the felt-topped card tables at the Caesars casino here, inside a steel cage built for maximum pain, Darrell Horcher is slipping a triangle choke hold on Chris Liguori. Fists land — left jabs, right crosses, quick combinations to jaws and abdomens. Knees sock solar plexuses. Hands claw faces. Bodies smack and thud. From the crowd, the refrain goes up: “That’s got to hurt!” After three rounds, Mr. Liguori is bleeding from his right eye. On this chilly December night, the decision is unanimous: Mr. Horcher is the winner.

So it goes in the Ramboesque world of cage fighting, more politely known as mixed martial arts. In this hugely popular — not to mention lucrative — sport, fighters employ agonizing moves like the “modified guillotine” and the “bicep slicer” as they punch, kick, knee and choke each other into submission.

But it’s got nothing on Hollywood. In fact, two media heavyweights are locked in a smackdown of their own over the future of this sport, which Senator John McCain has likened to human cockfighting. In one corner is Ari Emanuel, the Hollywood superagent who represents the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the premier cage-fighting league. In the other corner is Philippe P. Dauman, the urbane chief executive of the media conglomerate Viacom.

From 2005 to 2011, the U.F.C. was shown on Spike, a Viacom channel, where it became a ratings powerhouse. Then, in 2011, in renegotiating the U.F.C.’s deal, Mr. Emanuel asked for a 50 percent fee increase and made other demands. When Viacom balked, the U.F.C. struck a $700 million, seven-year deal with Fox Sports to show its fights on Fox, FX and Fuel, all owned by News Corporation. But Mr. Dauman counterpunched, and Viacom decided to enter the fight business itself. In fall 2011, the company paid around $50 million for a majority stake in Bellator Fighting Championships, according to people with knowledge of the deal who did not want to be identified discussing internal company business.

That Viacom, home of Paramount Pictures, MTV and SpongeBob SquarePants, now owns a gritty league of muscled gladiators — who travel the country fighting in a 710-square-foot circular cage — speaks to the fierce battle for live sports rights. In the DVR age, networks desperately want to hang on to live viewership.

BUT it also demonstrates the evolution of cage fighting, which has grown in the past decade from a fringe spectacle banned in many states to one of the fastest-growing sports properties on TV. Mixed martial arts dates back to the ancient Greek Olympic sport of pankration (or “all powers”) that emerged circa 648 B.C. It allowed fighters to use a blend of fighting styles, though biting and gouging out an opponent’s eyes were outlawed. In modern times, mixed martial arts largely evolved from a Brazilian combat sport known as vale tudo (Portuguese for “anything goes”) popularized in the 1920s. In the 1960s, Bruce Lee, the actor who has been called the father of mixed martial arts, drew big audiences to fighting that used a variety of disciplines. But the sport didn’t take off in the United States until the 1990s, when a prominent Brazilian family helped found the U.F.C. and began promoting nationwide fights.

The current sport allows fighters to use a hybrid of disciplines including Brazilian jujitsu, kickboxing, karate, taekwondo, judo and Greco-Roman wrestling. It is fought in a cage “because a fighter may find himself pressed up against the fence, but he won’t fall out,” according to the U.F.C.

Once almost a free-form bloodfest, M.M.A., as the sport is known, now comes with a strict set of rules enforced on a state-by-state basis (no hair-pulling, kicks “to the kidney with a heel” or “twisting the flesh”) and a standard of three rounds of five minutes each, or five rounds of five minutes each for championship title fights.

Last May, New York lawmakers maintained the state’s ban on mixed martial arts, leaving it one of the few states that do not sanction the sport. Adherents say that M.M.A. is safer than boxing because fighters aren’t allowed to get up after a knockout, and that the freer form means combatants don’t endure as many blows to the head.

In Atlantic City on Dec. 7, Bellator workers spent 19 hours transforming the Caesar’s ballroom, with its gaudy carpet and a cash bar, into a place that feels like a secret, exclusive fight club. “I think they had a bar mitzvah here last night,” joked Bjorn Rebney, a 6-foot-3 former college football player who is founder and chief executive of Bellator.

Most of the fans had received $52 to $165 tickets free, a casino perk offered to high rollers along with a Polynesian-themed circus and all-you-can-eat buffet coupons. Just past $10 blackjack tables, Mike Wessel, a hulking, tattooed heavyweight called “the Juggernaut,” defeated a Belarussian in a grueling five-minute round. In a later bout, the bantamweight favorite Zach Makovsky put his opponent in a “modified guillotine,” a type of front headlock.

On this night, the fighters, most of whom came from towns in New Jersey or Pennsylvania, brought cheering sections of friends and family. Most of the fighters received $3,000 each to show up and an additional $3,000 for winning.

(Page 2 of 4) The money didn’t look like enough in Bout 7, when a sweaty Mr. Horcher, a 154-pounder from Shermans Dale, Pa., bested Mr. Liguori, of Toms River, N.J. But the thump of the fighters hitting the mat with each body slam echoed through the strobe-lit room and energized the crowd, made up mostly of men. Fighters often stayed on the mat for several minutes using wrestling moves, prompting the crowd to stand up to see who was choking whom. (Hint: the combatant on the bottom was often winning.)

Bjorn Rebney is chief executive of Bellator, a league in which Viacom now has a majority interest.

A contingent of fans let out a chant of “Jersey strong!” when local fighters entered the ballroom under pulsating lights. But the 1,100 banquet chairs did not fill up until the final bouts, when fans took a break from the casino floor where cocktail waitresses served free drinks. During the bouts, the handful of women in the crowd mixed some cringes with their cheers. Sitting at cageside, Kevin Kay, the president of Spike — who estimates that he has attended more than 400 fights — is talking over loud rock music to Mr. Rebney about getting Bellator ready for prime time. They agree, for one thing, that Bellator has to discover its own fighters. “We don’t want to be picking up rejects from the U.F.C., because there’s a reason they’re leaving,” Mr. Kay says later. “Either they weren’t a fan favorite or they weren’t making money. You have to build your own talent up.”

As they look around the converted ballroom, they discuss bigger locations that would look better on television. (The Atlantic City fights were broadcast only on MTV2 and on Spike.com as practice for the Spike premiere in January. Those fights took place at the 5,000-seat Bren Events Center in Irvine, Calif. and were watched by 938,000 viewers on Spike. Later, Mr. Kay said, “We’ve saved up to make sure we’re in the right kinds of venues. There are no ballrooms on Spike.”)

Outside, in the casino parking garage, a traveling circus of Bellator-branded 18-wheelers is packed with men who travel to each location and work as sound editors and producers, putting the final touches on the bouts and cutting highlights for online broadcasts and television replays. Viacom has provided additional television staff members, experts at making combat sports look good on TV. Unlike Dana White, the U.F.C. president, who has become a constant presence inseparable from the league’s brand, Mr. Rebney plans to maintain a more distant role as Bellator’s C.E.O. Still, several fans called out for photographs and autographs from Mr. Rebney, whose black suit seemed the unofficial uniform of the evening’s V.I.P.’s.

THE new league, renamed Bellator M.M.A., certainly has not stopped the bad blood between the U.F.C. and Viacom. Mr. Dauman of Viacom says that “in airing U.F.C. fights and reality shows, Spike really built U.F.C. from almost nothing.”

Mr. White, the outspoken president of the U.F.C., calls Mr. Dauman’s characterization “the most pompous, arrogant thing to come out of someone’s mouth.” He adds, “Everybody thinks they can buy a cage and do what we do.”

Founded in 1993, the U.F.C. is widely credited with bringing sanctioned mixed martial arts to the United States. The league, owned by Zuffa L.L.C., based in Las Vegas, struggled for years to broker a television deal. Finally, in 2005, Mr. White says, the U.F.C. paid $10 million to produce “The Ultimate Fighter,” a reality series that follows mixed martial arts fighters living and training together in Las Vegas, and gave the show to Spike, a Viacom channel aimed at men. The Season 1 finale featured the first U.F.C. fight broadcast on Spike.

There, the U.F.C. became a surprise hit and led to other shows based on mixed martial arts, including “U.F.C. Unleashed,” that filled much of Spike’s schedule, along with reality series like “Bar Rescue” and “Tattoo Nightmares.”

Today, the U.F.C. is shown in 145 countries and territories in 28 languages and by Zuffa L.L.C.’s estimate is worth around $2 billion, roughly the same price a group of investors recently paid for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Part of what draws media companies to mixed martial arts is the sport’s allure to what marketers call “superconsumers,” or men aged 18 to 34 who watch sports but are otherwise tough for advertisers to reach.

“It’s one of the few sports that still has amazing growth in the really core, young demo,” says Eric Shanks, co-president and executive producer of the Fox Sports Media Group. “It really is a cliché, but it’s one of those sports that crosses over into being a lifestyle.”

(Page 3 of 4) UNLIKE many of its media competitors, Viacom does not own a sports network or pay heavily to program sports on its cable channels. During negotiations, which started in mid-2011 and were largely led by Mr. Emanuel, Mr. White and Thomas E. Dooley, Viacom’s chief operating officer, Viacom began to consider looking for an alternative.

After the Hollywood superagent Ari Emanuel switched the U.F.C. league to Fox from Spike, Viacom bought control of a rival league, Bellator.

As the U.F.C. gained attention on Spike, competing mixed martial arts leagues started to pop up. “It was like there was a new juicer and suddenly you saw 100 different types of juicers,” Mr. Rebney says. Named after a Latin word for warrior, Bellator began in 2008. Mr. Rebney, a former Ohio University running back and boxing promoter, took out a second mortgage on his house in the Brentwood district of Los Angeles to start the league. It now has 175 fighters and seven 18-wheelers that travel the country.

A publicist for Spike says the audience for mixed martial arts is more heavily college-educated and female than stereotypes suggest, making it especially appealing for all types of advertisers. “Sixty-four percent of M.M.A. fans are college-educated. That’s a four-year college,” Mr. Rebney says as the crowd trickles into the ballroom at Caesars. “It’s wealthy guys showing off to their girlfriends.”

Despite the statistics, the fans at Caesars that night were almost all men, and did not particularly ooze affluence: there were lots of cutoff T-shirts, acid-washed jeans and high fives. Mr. Dauman, ranked as the nation’s highest-paid C.E.O. in 2011 and known for his custom-tailored clothes and Hermès cuff links, has not yet attended a fight.

Mr. Rebney, a disciple of the sports agent (and “Jerry Maguire” inspiration) Leigh Steinberg, previously worked as agent for the boxer Oscar De La Hoya, helping to broker his TV and sponsorship deals.

Mr. Rebney approached Spike in mid-2011 when he heard through the M.M.A. rumor mill that the U.F.C. might not renew its contract.

“I saw the writing on the wall and started setting up meetings,” he says.

As talks soured between Mr. Emanuel, the U.F.C. and Viacom, Mr. Dauman and Mr. Dooley approved the purchase of Bellator. A person involved in the negotiations said the U.F.C., in addition to the rights increase, had wanted to own a 50 percent equity stake in Spike and to maintain too much control over which fights the league broadcast on pay-per-view. Under the Fox deal, the U.F.C. still gives its biggest fights to pay-per-view first.

Mr. Dauman saw other benefits in owning a league outright, like profiting from pay-per-view, digital and international broadcasts, Bellator action figures and perhaps someday casting a Paramount film with Bellator fighters, for example.

“You have to ask yourself, what can we afford and what is the return on investment?” Mr. Kay says. He emphasized the importance of ancillary revenue that comes from owning Bellator outright. “If you don’t have the back end and are building someone else’s business, you see the end coming,” he says.

Mr. White says he preferred to take the U.F.C. to Fox because “it’s a real sports network with N.F.L., Nascar, and this is what they do.”

Mr. Emanuel declined to comment. Mr. Dauman said: “I personally have a lot of respect for Dana White” and “as far as I’m concerned there’s no bitterness at all.” Viacom has flooded the airwaves with ads for Bellator, broadcast during U.F.C. fights on Fox’s local television stations. In the ads, Bellator fighters poetically suit up to the song “I’m Coming Home.”

“We have enormous respect for the U.F.C. and now we will compete with them head-to-head,” says Doug Herzog, president of the Viacom Entertainment Group.

Mr. White praised his working relationship with Mr. Herzog, whom he calls “a stud.” But he says the idea of Bellator competing with the U.F.C. “is like saying the local high school football team is going up against the N.F.L.”

Page 4 of 4) Business is brutal in the fight world, and in recent years many of the start-up mixed martial arts leagues that were intended to compete with the U.F.C. have disappeared or been acquired. In 2011, Zuffa bought Strikeforce, a rival league that had fleeting television deals with Showtime and NBC.

“We got into this 14 years ago because we fell in love with the sport and the athletes and we had a plan and a vision,” Mr. White says. “These other guys just think it looks like a fun business for guys. Sure, if you love losing money and burning cash, it’s so fun.”

Bellator has fared better than most U.F.C. competitors, building a loyal audience and a stable of fighters who compete tournament-style.

In Atlantic City, Mr. Rebney is schmoozing at cageside with network executives and advertisers. He has a shaved head and a couple of days’ worth of stubble and wears a black-on-black suit to every fight.

“I have a suitcase full of them,” he says.

Now that Viacom is in the fight business, advertisers can put their logos on the arena and the $4,000 mat that lines the cage. (The mat, blood-spattered by the end of an event, is replaced each night.) Mr. Rebney says that he knows Bellator is the underdog, but that he hopes that viewers will watch because of the tournament format, which will spotlight fighters and their often tear-jerking back stories.

“We’re athlete-focused,” Mr. Rebney says. “People tune in to see superstars, not the brand.”

THE main attraction on this night was set to be Rad Martinez, 34, a featherweight who became an Internet sensation after he was featured in a heart-wrenching ESPN segment about fighting so that he could take care of his paraplegic father. He ended up sitting out the fight after his opponent contracted food poisoning.

Before the only female matchup, in a video broadcast to the crowd, Zoila Gurgel says of her opponent, Jessica Eye: “There’s no one I want to hurt more than her.” Ms. Eye, 26, with braids and a wide smile, had been hit by a car years earlier and thought she’d never walk again. She choked Ms. Gurgel temporarily unconscious and won the fight in 58 seconds

"A good stickgrappler has good stick skills, good grappling, and good stickgrappling and can keep track of all three simultaneously. This is a good trick and can be quite effective." - Marc "Crafty Dog" Denny

I liked that the fighter here was concerned for the fallen opponent; it was a very, very bad KO.

Woof Guro C,

Wow about your ulna. Powerful kick

Yeah, Uriah Hall did his celebratory thing but he didn't realize the extent of damage he caused. Once he saw he was super-concerned.

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"A good stickgrappler has good stick skills, good grappling, and good stickgrappling and can keep track of all three simultaneously. This is a good trick and can be quite effective." - Marc "Crafty Dog" Denny

I finished the round, and then sat down. Vunak, whose class it was, asked why I was sitting.

"My arm hurts; I think I may have a bone bruise."

"Pussy."

"I think I'll get it x-rayed on the way home."

"Pussy."

My car was a standard at the time, and the injured arm was my right, so shifting gears was a goodly trick

The X-ray showed a clean break.

My Chinese girlfriend took me to Monterrey Park to a Chinese Medicine doctor who mixed up a brew of twigs, bark, mud, etc. and my girlfriend put it in a weird clay pot and brewed up a really vile smelling tea-- which really helped the rate of my healing.

"A good stickgrappler has good stick skills, good grappling, and good stickgrappling and can keep track of all three simultaneously. This is a good trick and can be quite effective." - Marc "Crafty Dog" Denny

The Ultimate Fighting Championship is known for its mix of "karate, jiu-jitsu, boxing, kickboxing, grappling, wrestling, sumo and other combat sports," played in an "Octagon" cage between two impressively muscled fighters who win by "knockout, submission or decision." None of that has prepared UFC executives for the eye-gouges and below-the-belt punches of New York politics.

Millions of Americans know UFC's mixed-martial arts from television and matches in arenas across the 48 states where its fights are legal. The sport has grown in popularity, especially among young men, and its events bring in hundreds of millions of dollars a year in revenue and other economic activity. But the sport—which is heavily regulated by state athletic commissions—remains illegal in Connecticut and New York. The reason? Union politics in Nevada, of all places.

The Culinary Workers Union Local 226 of Las Vegas, which represents hotel and restaurant workers, has a long-standing vendetta against UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta because he and his brother Frank run casinos and hotels that aren't unionized. The union hasn't dared to run an organizing election on one of the Fertitta properties. But the union is still trying to leverage its political clout to stop UFC expansion wherever it can.

Enter Sheldon Silver, the boss of New York politics. Democrats dominate the state Assembly, and Mr. Silver of lower Manhattan dominates his fellow Democrats. He's been Speaker since 1994, and he's refused even to allow a vote on a bill to legalize mixed-martial arts in the state.

The bill has passed the state Senate four years in a row only to be bottled up each time by Mr. Silver. Assembly Majority Leader Joseph Morelle is the bill's lead supporter and he has 63 co-sponsors out of 150 members. But even he can't get a vote past Mr. Silver, who won't explain his opposition.

UFC has tried to work behind the scenes, but it has more or less been told that the price of getting into New York is to bow to the culinary union. Specifically, the union wants the Fertitta brothers to declare their neutrality in any election and let the union onto their properties to organize via a non-secret "card check" tally. That means potentially subjecting employees to union intimidation, and the Fertittas have understandably refused.

The culinary workers have launched websites attacking UFC, picketed UFC sponsors such as MetroPCS PCS +4.18%and sent letters denouncing the company to teachers at Bishop Gorman High School, where the Fertitta kids attend classes. The union has also complained to the Federal Trade Commission, which launched an antitrust investigation of UFC's parent company, Zuffa, in 2011 for an acquisition of a competing promoter, before dropping the case less than a year later.

Meanwhile, Mr. Silver's obstinance is costing the New York economy, which could benefit from as many as 50 bouts a year. UFC estimates that only two fights, in Manhattan's Madison Square Garden and Buffalo's HSBC HSBA.LN +0.67%Arena, could generate as much as $16 million in business for the Empire State. The economically bereft upstate could use the jobs in particular.

Governor Andrew Cuomo has made supporting noises about UFC's request to enter the state, but as usual he refuses to take on a union, much less Mr. Silver. So it goes in New York, which desperately needs jobs but where union political extortion is nastier than anything you'll ever see in the Octagon.

I made an animated GIF - for those that haven't watched the fight yet and hate SPOILERS, DON'T check out the link

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"A good stickgrappler has good stick skills, good grappling, and good stickgrappling and can keep track of all three simultaneously. This is a good trick and can be quite effective." - Marc "Crafty Dog" Denny

"A good stickgrappler has good stick skills, good grappling, and good stickgrappling and can keep track of all three simultaneously. This is a good trick and can be quite effective." - Marc "Crafty Dog" Denny

"A good stickgrappler has good stick skills, good grappling, and good stickgrappling and can keep track of all three simultaneously. This is a good trick and can be quite effective." - Marc "Crafty Dog" Denny

"A good stickgrappler has good stick skills, good grappling, and good stickgrappling and can keep track of all three simultaneously. This is a good trick and can be quite effective." - Marc "Crafty Dog" Denny

Didn't have time to make more and didn't post to my site... check out this throw.

Jim Miller x Pat Healy

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"A good stickgrappler has good stick skills, good grappling, and good stickgrappling and can keep track of all three simultaneously. This is a good trick and can be quite effective." - Marc "Crafty Dog" Denny

By Mark La MonicaNewsday May 22--Matt Serra felt pain while sitting in the corner during an MMA fight. Nothing unusual for the lifelong fighter, except for one unique distinction this time: he wasn't the one fighting. Instead, the former UFC welterweight champion from East Meadow was cornering one of his fighters at Ring of Combat in Atlantic City on April 5. It was a pain that would put Serra in the emergency room for four days, lead to the surgical removal of one of his ribs and now, cause his exit from mixed martial arts competition. "It's hard to say it," Serra told Newsday. "It's like you can't say it, even though it probably is true. I would love to put closure on my career with one last fight at the Garden, but at the same time, if that doesn't happen, I definitely consider myself done. It's hard to say the 'R word.' I might never say the 'R word.'" That thrill of fight night, when the adrenaline pumps through the veins, the fans scream and invincibility consumes the brain and body -- putting that in the past is never easy. Not for Serra, the only man on the planet to knock out Georges St-Pierre in a pro fight. Not for many athletes, regardless of sport. "I really think I'm walking away," he said. "I'm going to be 39, I just had my rib taken out. I'm having my third kid. My schools are doing well. What am I doing, looking for another pay day? It's not really for that. I mean, it doesn't stink, but it's not really for that. Am I still trying to hold on for the glory? Glory is a drug, dude. I'm telling you, that's the problem. It really is. I know why guys can't walk away. I absolutely get it." Serra had always contemplated one more fight, but the ordeal of the past six weeks has forced him to face a new reality. Serra first felt pain in his left arm after a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu training session at one of his academies two days before the Ring of Combat event. He figured he had just pulled a muscle. He came home to Massapequa after the fights. The pain never left. It intensified. Serra couldn't bend his arm. He couldn't lift his hand to touch his neck. He got out of bed around 2 a.m. and drove to the emergency room at Winthrop University Hospital in Mineola. Tests revealed two blood clots in his arm and another in his lungs. "Then I got freaked out," Serra said. "You don't catch that [and] after the lung, that stops your heart or your brain. Then you're done. I'm very fortunate to, basically, be here. Sounds kind of morbid. If I didn't catch that -- I was about to go to bed. I'm like, man, something's not feeling right." Serra was put on blood thinners to address the clot in his lungs. He must now inject himself in the stomach with Lovenox, an anticoagulant, every day for the next three months. The clots in his arm created a significant health issue as well. Serra's collarbone and first rib were compressing a blood vessel and restricting blood flow, a condition known as thoracic outlet syndrome. Serra had the first rib on his left side removed in early May, a procedure performed by Dr. George Hines, chief of vascular surgery at Winthrop. Hines estimated that Winthrop does about six of these surgeries a year. "It's like taking out the floor of the whole area," Hines said. "You remove the rib and everything drops into place." The procedure can take up to two hours to complete, and patients typically return home the following day. "They had to cut me open through my armpit and cut through whatever they had to cut through and get my rib out," Serra said. "It's definitely strange and I'm feeling it in there." Doctors told Serra he would need six to eight weeks just to recover from the rib removal. A month or so after that, Serra is expected to no longer need to take blood thinners and can resume active jiu-jitsu teaching and training. "I need my jiu-jitsu, man," Serra said. "I don't need to spar. I don't need to kickbox or box every day. Even if you see me with some pasta, I'm still strangling and arm-locking people at least five days a week and I need that." Serra could not bring himself to actually say the word "retire," but his active MMA career is essentially over. Serra (17-7, 7-7 UFC) last fought Sept. 25, 2010, a unanimous-decision loss to Chris Lytle at UFC 119. He turns 39 next month and doesn't want to be one of those athletes who hangs around too long. "An aging fighter?" Serra said. "You know, it's like an aging stripper, but not as funny. Not a lot of people want to see that." The biggest moment of Serra's career also serves as one of the greatest upsets in UFC and MMA history. On the night of April 7, 2007, inside the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas, Serra did the unthinkable. A 9-1 underdog, Serra took St-Pierre's welterweight title with a first-round knockout. St-Pierre has since credited Serra with helping him become the fighter he is now, one who beat Serra in the rematch and has eight straight title defenses, second best in UFC history behind Anderson Silva's 10. Serra earned that title shot by winning Season 4 of "The Ultimate Fighter." That comeback season, the only one in the show's history, featured fighters who had competed in the UFC but never won a title. "I know I can be beat by some of these guys, but I know I can still knock some of these guys out and be a threat on the ground," said Serra, the first American to earn a black belt under Renzo Gracie. "But at the same time, it used to be that the thing that made me happiest was the next fight. Now, I whistle to work going to my schools. I love hanging out with my kids, my family. That's something you never really anticipate or understand it until you have a family. I love spending time with my girls. I'm a very involved dad." Serra runs successful BJJ academies in Levittown and Huntington and recently opened a third in Bayside. He is also working to create affiliate Serra BJJ schools across the country, a system where those who earned their black belts under him would open academies under the Serra BJJ flag. Serra and his wife, Ann, have two daughters with a third due in June. Angelina is 4, Maria is 2. "Angelina is already arm-locking me, and I have her teaching Maria," Serra said. "They're doing it on the teddy bears. It's awesome."

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"A good stickgrappler has good stick skills, good grappling, and good stickgrappling and can keep track of all three simultaneously. This is a good trick and can be quite effective." - Marc "Crafty Dog" Denny

"A good stickgrappler has good stick skills, good grappling, and good stickgrappling and can keep track of all three simultaneously. This is a good trick and can be quite effective." - Marc "Crafty Dog" Denny

"A good stickgrappler has good stick skills, good grappling, and good stickgrappling and can keep track of all three simultaneously. This is a good trick and can be quite effective." - Marc "Crafty Dog" Denny

"A good stickgrappler has good stick skills, good grappling, and good stickgrappling and can keep track of all three simultaneously. This is a good trick and can be quite effective." - Marc "Crafty Dog" Denny

I am reminded of Joe Rogan's comment that Big Country is a light heavyweight who likes to eat. I'm thinking he could do a lot better in the LH division , , ,

LOL

I just found out he took the fight on short notice so perhaps that was a major factor

Logged

"A good stickgrappler has good stick skills, good grappling, and good stickgrappling and can keep track of all three simultaneously. This is a good trick and can be quite effective." - Marc "Crafty Dog" Denny

"A good stickgrappler has good stick skills, good grappling, and good stickgrappling and can keep track of all three simultaneously. This is a good trick and can be quite effective." - Marc "Crafty Dog" Denny

"A good stickgrappler has good stick skills, good grappling, and good stickgrappling and can keep track of all three simultaneously. This is a good trick and can be quite effective." - Marc "Crafty Dog" Denny

But Bowe is now 45 and weighs 300 pounds, and he looked it Friday in his first fight since 2008.

Slow and out of shape, the fighter known as "Big Daddy" took a big beating from his 30-year-old unheralded Russian opponent Levgen Golovin, who attacked with repeated kicks to the shins that knocked Bowe off his feet five times. The bout ended with a technical knockout after his last fall when Bowe sat on the ground clutching his legs, wincing in pain.

"You can recover from a head shot or a body shot, but when you get kicked in the leg it lasts a long time," Bowe said, as his trainer iced his left shin. "My leg is still hurting. I don't know how long it's been -- 15 minutes?"

Not once during the brief fight, which ended 2 minutes into the second round, did Bowe land a punch or a kick. But he was happy to trade barbs with reporters afterward showing the wit that made him one of boxing's charismatic personalities during his brief reign as champion two decades ago.

"This ain't a setback it's a getback," Bowe said, referring to his comeback. "I had a lot of fun. I'm going to do it again. Next time it's going to be different."

Like so many boxers, Bowe lost the struggle to stay out of the ring. He had his reasons: He's bored with retirement; his millions are gone and he needs the money; he misses the adoration of fans; he loves to fight -- and knows little else.

Bowe said he was inspired by the comeback of George Foreman, who won a heavyweight title at age 45. But the comebacks of aging champions don't always go so well. Think of Muhammad Ali, at 38 and two years after retirement, taking punishment round after round from Larry Holmes. There was onetime heavyweight champion Greg Page coming back and nearly losing his life for a few thousand dollars. Heavyweight great Joe Louis paid dearly for his attempt to come back at an advanced age.

Bowe escaped without serious injury and made $150,000 for his Muay Thai debut, organized by Thai promoters trying to increase the international appeal of Thailand's national sport. The money is a far cry from the millions he earned by beating Evander Holyfield in 1992 to become the undisputed heavyweight champion.

In his heyday, Bowe fought on boxing's grandest stages in Las Vegas and New York.

His return to fighting took place at an outdoor ring set up beside the beach in Pattaya, a Thai town best known for its sprawling seaside red-light district.

Surveying the scene before the fight started, Bowe shook his head sadly.

"I should be moving up, but I'm moving backwards here," he said.

His fight was one of a dozen at the venue, which had the atmosphere of a village fairground with loud music and amusement park rides nearby. Promoters had said they hoped to draw about 20,000 people, but a crowd closer to 1,000 turned up even though admission was free.

On a sweltering night, Bowe sat and sweated for hours as he waited his turn to fight. The venue had no changing rooms, so Bowe and other fighters stripped down and changed in open air tents beside the stage.

"I've never seen anything like this," Bowe said, his spirits lifted by fans who came up to ask for autographs and wish him luck.

One American fan stared in awe at Bowe.

"He was such an underrated and great champion," said Jerry Mathison, a former fighter turned songwriter who lives in Thailand. "I can't believe he's here, in Pattaya."

In some ways, Friday's fight is the latest bizarre episode for Bowe, whose life in and out of the ring was marked by drama.

One of his three fights against Holyfield was interrupted by a parachutist who landed beside the ring. A fight against Andrew Golota in 1996 set off a riot in the ring at Madison Square Garden. Bowe left boxing later in 1996 at 29 for a career in the U.S. Marines, but that lasted only a few days. He then served 17 months in prison for interstate domestic violence after going to North Carolina to haul his now-former wife and their five children back home to Maryland.

Despite his loss, Bowe was optimistic before limping away into a car.

"Hey, we're going to do this again. I'll be back soon," he said. "I'm not a quitter. I want to do it until I get it right."

Bowe's opponent shook his head in disbelief when told the aging boxer plans to return to Muay Thai.

"It would be a big mistake. It's not for him," said Golovin, a trim and fit 220 pounds. "He's too slow and a bit too old."

"A good stickgrappler has good stick skills, good grappling, and good stickgrappling and can keep track of all three simultaneously. This is a good trick and can be quite effective." - Marc "Crafty Dog" Denny

"A good stickgrappler has good stick skills, good grappling, and good stickgrappling and can keep track of all three simultaneously. This is a good trick and can be quite effective." - Marc "Crafty Dog" Denny

"A good stickgrappler has good stick skills, good grappling, and good stickgrappling and can keep track of all three simultaneously. This is a good trick and can be quite effective." - Marc "Crafty Dog" Denny